October 24, 2022
Rev. Richard P. Smith
| James 1:26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. |
James, the brother of Jesus and the author of this New Testament book, wrote that managing our “tongues” is an essential part of mature faith and commitment.
Overall, James had a most pessimistic view of how we control our tongues; that is, how we control the words we speak. In chapter three, he writes:
The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire.
Here James seems to see more evil than good with how we tend to use and speak our words. It’s as if James lived in our day and time and saw the problems we all note:
- Extreme incivility in so many social, political, and religious settings;
- Rampant judgmentalism among ethnic, religious, and cultural groups;
- Unrelenting gossip;
- Expansion of profanity in culture and entertainment;
- Unapologetic indictment of perspectives and lifestyles different than our own.
The truth is, and you know this as well as I, words do have power. In the Book of Proverbs we read: Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim (15:14).
As I see it…
Words have the power to build up or tear down.
They have the power to spread truth or spread falsehood.
They have the power to heal emotional wounds or create emotional wounds.
They have the power to help a person feel good about oneself or feel terrible about oneself.
They have the power to inspire persons to acts of kindness or motivate persons to acts of hatred.
There’s no question that none of us will guard our comments, our language, perfectly. I won’t and you won’t. But, faithful followers of Jesus seek to be consistently attentive to the words we speak in personal interactions with others and in public conversations on issues that matter. We don’t take lightly that guarding our emotions and thus words which flow from those emotions is a spiritual discipline needed from all who claim belief in and commitment to the Lord Jesus.
Perhaps it would serve each of us well to do some personal reflection on those occasions when we are most likely let our tongues betray us and ask for God’s help to do better next time.
